Oliver Stone Is Making A Movie About George Bush

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Would anyone pay to see this? Maybe they'll be a 3D version.

Oliver Stone to make "fair" movie about George. W. Bush

January 20, 2008

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Director Oliver Stone, who has made movies about Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, is developing a project about the current occupant of the White House, but promises it will not be a hatchet job, Daily Variety reported on Sunday.

Stone is in talks with Josh Brolin, who is starring in "No Country For Old Men," to play the title role in "Bush," the trade paper said.

He is shopping the script to financiers and hopes to start production by April, with a release date in time for the election in November, or the inauguration of Bush's successor in January.

Stone told Daily Variety that he planned to make "a fair, true portrait" of Bush, focusing on such areas as his relationship with his father, President George H.W. Bush, his wild youth, and his conversion to Christianity.

"It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors," said Stone.

He said Brolin was better looking than Bush, "but has the same drive and charisma that Americans identify with Bush, who has some of that old-time movie-star swagger."

A White House spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. Bush has acknowledged that he was a heavy drinker in his younger days, but has long been sober.

Stone, who has had his battles with drink and drugs, earned three Oscar nominations for his 1991 conspiracy film "JFK." In 1996, he also received a script nomination for "Nixon," which starred Anthony Hopkins. He won best directing Oscars for the Vietnam sagas "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July."

Other historical figures reinterpreted by Stone include dead rock star Jim Morrison in "The Doors," and Alexander the Great in "Alexander."

In 2002, he shot a flattering documentary about Cuban leader Fidel Castro for HBO, but the pay-cable network told him to balance it with more footage about political prisoners on the communist island.

Stone's efforts last year to film a documentary about another Bush nemesis, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also hit turbulence. His request for access was denied with an official reportedly dismissing the filmmaker as "part of the Great Satan."
 
:lol: I don't care how fair the movie will be, after living 8 years watching him fuck up our country, I'm not going to pay to see a likeness of him. I need a break from seeing his goofy sneer and hearing him try and speak.
 
Here's the Variety story-Misunderestimated would be a much better title

Oliver Stone has set his sights on his next directing project, "Bush," a film focusing on the life and presidency of George W. Bush, and attached Josh Brolin to play the title role.

The director has begun quietly shopping a script by his "Wall Street" co-writer Stanley Weiser.

Pic will be produced by Moritz Borman, who teamed with Stone on "World Trade Center" and "Alexander," and Jon Kilik, a producer of "Alexander" as well as "Pinkville," the pre-strike project about the Army's investigation of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam that Stone expected to direct until United Artists pulled the plug late last year.

Borman said Weiser's script was completed before the WGA strike and was ready to shoot and that many of Stone's "Pinkville" crew jumped right into "Bush." If financing materializes quickly enough, the film could start production by April and could be in theaters for the election or the inauguration.

One need only Google the words "Stone" and "Bush" to find plenty of the director's critical comments about the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. Despite that, the director said he's not looking to make an anti-Bush polemic. His goal is to use seminal events in Bush's life to explain how he came to power, using a structure comparable to "The Queen."

"It's a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to 'Nixon,' to give a sense of what it's like to be in his skin," Stone told Daily Variety. "But if 'Nixon' was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone. People have turned my political ideas into a cliche, but that is superficial. I'm a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great."

Stone declined to give his personal opinion of the president.

"I can't give you that, because the filmmaker has to hide in the work," Stone said. "Here, I'm the referee, and I want a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world? It's like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I'll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from. It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States, and his coming into his own with the stunning, preemptive attack on Iraq. It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors."

Stone said his NYU classmate Weiser did a lot of research as they worked for more than a year on the project before setting the script aside when Stone committed to "Pinkville." While UA partners Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise said they pulled the plug on that movie because of the WGA strike, Stone seemed to support widespread speculation that the strike was an excuse to kill another war-themed movie that UA was wary of making after its first release, "Lions for Lambs," flopped.

"On 'Pinkville,' I had a great script and one of the best casts on any of my films, with 40 young actors and Bruce Willis," Stone said. "It's a shame they lost faith in the film, and that they unemployed 500 people right before Christmas. We were three weeks from shooting."

Stone hopes to get his script back so he can revive "Pinkville" down the line.

Stone, Weiser and Borman had kept the "Bush" script under tight wraps, developing it under "POTUS" (President of the United States) and "Misunderestimated." Now they're aiming for a quick ramp-up to production, though both Stone and Borman believe the project will remain viable even after the presidential election.

"We've just gone out with it, and April is just around the corner," Borman said. "If we can get it done as an independent or with a studio, we can do it quickly, but nobody really knows what is happening with the SAG situation. We've found locations in Louisiana, but we will have to build sets, especially the White House. We could do it later, because it's not a film that has to be timed with the election; it's a character study of a man."

Stone looked carefully at actors before setting his sights on Brolin, whose career has drawn recent traction from memorable roles in "No Country for Old Men" and "American Gangster." Brolin just began work on the Gus Van Sant-directed "Milk," playing Dan White, the San Francisco pol who gunned down Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. While Brolin won't make a formal deal until financing is sealed, he can be ready for an April start.

"Josh is actually better looking than Bush but has the same drive and charisma that Americans identify with Bush, who has some of that old-time movie-star swagger," Stone said.
 
Maybe when I see the other 4000 plus movies I have lined up in front of it.
 
nathan1977 said:
Too soon.

I agree. After eight years of the real thing, people might need some time before they are willing to sit through a fictional retelling.

It's kind of fun to play the casting game, though. Who should play Laura Bush? Karl Rove? Dick Cheney?
 
Theres only one movie about GWB that I want to see

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2861U2 said:


He does.

Hopefully this movie will be more factually accurate than the garbage that was JFK.


WHAT!!! JFK was a great film. Maybe not totally accuarate but it had enough of the discrepencies that were a part of the conspiracy to hold up. Maybe you think it was "garbage" because it didn't do what the government liars have attempted to do to us for over 40 years...pretend that Lee Harvey Oswald did it all alone. Now that is GARBAGE!!!!!
 
Irvine511 said:
Platoon is some powerful shit, too.
My very first date consisted of going to see that movie, after which we went for coffee and dessert and dazedly attempted to make small talk while still reeling from footage of mass graves set to Barber's Adagio. Not romantic!
 
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yolland said:

My very first date consisted of going to see that movie, after which we went for coffee and dessert and dazedly attempted to make small talk while still reeling from footage of mass graves set to Barber's Adagio. Not romantic!

:lol: Not exactly a date movie, huh. Reminds me of my sister forcing us to watch "Dead Man Walking" on Christmas Eve!

I liked "Any Given Sunday" personally.
 
honestly, the trailer looks a bit painful. it's very strange to see actors impersonating people who are still constantly on the news. feels like an SNL skit.

and Oliver Stone hasn't made a good movie in almost 20 years.

but who knows?
 
honestly, the trailer looks a bit painful. it's very strange to see actors impersonating people who are still constantly on the news. feels like an SNL skit.

and Oliver Stone hasn't made a good movie in almost 20 years.

but who knows?

Yeah it looks pretty bad...

But I wouldn't say 20 years, Any Given Sunday was decent and Natural Born Killers was excellent.
 
JFK is probably his most skillfully done movie.

Platoon is some powerful shit, too.


Please rank Platoon first....thank you.

JFK the movie - took everything it possibly could from the conspiracy community and attempted to wrap it into one.

THe best thing it accomplished was to get some of the documents released sooner - and that in turn has allowed for the debunking of many of the conspiracies.
 
Stone based his film around the book by Jim Garrison. The case built by Garrison looked semi-plausible on a cursory examination but under closer examination did not stack up. Clay Shaw was most likely an innocent man unfairly hounded.

The film 'JFK' and the book which inspired it are best seen as entertaining works of fiction.
 
Please rank Platoon first....thank you.

JFK the movie - took everything it possibly could from the conspiracy community and attempted to wrap it into one.

THe best thing it accomplished was to get some of the documents released sooner - and that in turn has allowed for the debunking of many of the conspiracies.



my comment on JFK had nothing to do with it's factual-ness, or lack thereof -- i find it a very sophisticated piece of filmmaking is all.

Stone also gets points for getting a brilliant performance out of Tom "Crazy" Cruise in "Born on the 4th of July."
 
Stone also gets points for getting a brilliant performance out of Tom "Crazy" Cruise in "Born on the 4th of July."

True that. It's the only movie I can think of where Tom Cruise isn't playing Tom Cruise.

I loved "Any Given Sunday."

The movie W seems too soon.
 
Stone based his film around the book by Jim Garrison. The case built by Garrison looked semi-plausible on a cursory examination but under closer examination did not stack up. Clay Shaw was most likely an innocent man unfairly hounded.

The film 'JFK' and the book which inspired it are best seen as entertaining works of fiction.


He settled on Garrison :O) Threaded the other stuff.
 
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